Best Online Thrift Stores & Consignment Websites: Swap vs thredUP vs Poshmark vs Tradesy vs The RealReal & More

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A variety of items - shoes, purse, jewelry, and a shirt, on a table
Don’t wear these anymore? You might be surprised how much you can still get for them! We show you the best online thrift stores to sell your unused clothes, jewelry, and tchotchke.

Want to make some money off your gently used clothes and keep your unwanted stuff out of the landfills? You can sell used clothes through one of these best online thrift stores. Some consignors have made more than $1,000 by utilizing these designer consignment websites.

Best Online Thrift Stores

Don’t have designer items? No worries, some of these companies sell clothes that aren’t designer focused. And you don’t even have to shop for clothes and shoes. Some of the best consignment websites also allow games, accessories, movies, books, and more. Learn more about our top picks for the best online thrift stores.

Winner: Swap Review

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Swap accepts new or gently used clothes, toys, games, movies, books, and more. You can purchase from multiple sellers and have them shipped in one order. All items ship within one business day.

Don’t like what you purchased, or it doesn’t fit? You can return it within 30-days. All you have to do is ship it back, and you’ll get a full refund or store credit within five to ten days.

Choose to sell your secondhand items through Swap and you can use a pre-paid shipping label or Inbound Box to send your items. Then Swap will photograph, price, list, pack, and store your items until they sell. Once sold, you will earn your money.

If your items aren’t listed or sold, you can donate them or have them sent back to you for $5.99.

ProsCons
  • A+ rating on BBB
  • Can sell and buy household items in addition to clothes
  • Items ship within one business day (and multiple orders ship together)
  • Save up to 90% off the original retail price when buying clothes
  • 30-day returns
  • Quality items for sale
  • Some consigners say it took months for Swap to go through their items
  • Items are priced by Swap
  • Many photos aren’t on mannequins

Commission Rates

  • Less than $8 sale: earn 20% credit or 15% cash
  • $8.01 and above sale: earn 20% credit or 70% cash plus a $4.95 fee

Runner-Up: Poshmark Review

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Founded in 2011, Poshmark sells women’s, men’s, and kids’ clothing as well as shoes, bags, jewelry, accessories, and makeup. Instead of sending your items into Poshmark, you take your own photos and upload them to your “closet.” You can then share your listings to your network to try and get your items sold.

You set the price of your items, so you won’t feel like your clothes were stolen from you. After your item sells, Poshmark provides a pre-paid label to send your items. After the package is delivered, you’ll get paid.

Poshmark is a popular choice for clothing sellers, and there are also many options for you to improve your wardrobe. Sellers can create shops. Some are very descriptive and thorough, while others are a little lazier with their listings.

ProsCons
  • B+ rating on BBB
  • No shipping costs for selling
  • The app is easy to use
  • Save up to 70% off the original retail price when buying clothes
  • Great online community
  • Items are priced by sellers
  • No household items
  • Some photos aren’t great since they’re taken by sellers
  • Complaints of accounts being shut down with no warning
  • The shipping fee is not covered for sellers
  • Customer service complaints
  • All sales are final, no return policy

Seller Fees (No Commission Rate)

Poshmark charges a flat fee for each item sold and doesn’t necessarily have a “commission rate” like the other companies reviewed in this article.

  • Sales under $15: $2.95 fee
  • Sales more than $15: 20% fee

Tips For Using Poshmark

Below are tips specific to Poshmark, but you could also use them in any of these online consignment clothing stores.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IORpk80spfc

3rd Place: thredUP Review

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ThredUP was founded in 2009 as a peer-to-peer online sharing platform of men’s shirts. It has now extended far beyond selling just men’s shirts. ThredUP specializes in women’s and kids’ designer clothing but also has shoes, handbags, and men’s clothing. Everything from no-brand and low-end items like Old Navy to high-end fashion brands like Kate Spade.

To sell your items through thredUP, request a Clean Out Bag and put any items you want to sell in it. Ship it to thredUP and the company will take photos and put the qualifying items up on its website for sale. The majority of its clothes are presented on a mannequin, so you get a pretty good idea of what the clothes would look like on you.

We’re a little disappointed that thredUP only offers a 14-day return window compared to typical in-store purchases. You usually have at least 30-days to return retail store-bought items. And according to consumers, some haven’t received payment for their sold items or didn’t receive their unsold items returned back to them.

ProsCons
  • A+ rating on BBB
  • Save up to 90% off the original retail price when buying clothes
  • Free clean out bag shipped to you to mail in items
  • They provide professional photos
  • Most photos are on mannequins to give you a sense of how it looks on a person
  • Must enter your email to shop the site
  • Lower payout and can’t control the price
  • Consumers say they didn’t receive unsold items returned to them
  • Shorter return time frame compared to other sites

Commission Rates

  • Listing price $5.00-$19.99: Payout = 5-15%
  • Listing price $20.00-$49.99: Payout = 15-30%
  • Listing price $50.00-$99.99: Payout = 30-60%
  • Listing price $100.00-$199.99: Payout = 60-80%
  • Listing price $200+: Payout = 80%

Coupon

Our link above applies discounts if available

Read Our In-Depth Review Of thredUP

Other Online Consignment Shops

Below you’ll find an alphabetical listing of other companies we’ve reviewed that didn’t make our top three.

DepopThe RealReal | Tradesy

Depop Review

Depop logo

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Depop isn’t very descriptive with how its consignment works. In fact, we had to do some digging to find out how Depop runs its consignment shop.

The website looks like Instagram. It’s filled with images of clothing, and when you select an item, an Instagram-like page comes up with hashtags, images, and a blurb about the article of clothing. You can choose to follow the shop owner, so you have access to view all of the items for sale on their shop in your feed. Sellers are in charge of taking their own photos and setting their prices.

Similar to eBay, you can bid on items instead of paying the price that is listed. The platform isn’t really for designer items, and people, not manufacturers, make some items. Depop is popular among people under 30-years-old. Unfortunately, many people report scams using Depop, so we don’t recommend using it.

ProsCons
  • Many inexpensive clothing items
  • No return policy
  • No BBB page
  • Many sellers and buyers have been scammed by the opposite party

Commission Rates

  • 10% commission fee and a 3.4% + $0.30 PayPal transaction fee

The RealReal Review

RealReal logo

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You can consign through The RealReal one of three ways. The first is to schedule an in-home pickup if you have more than ten items, which is free but only available in certain areas. If you have less than ten items or in-home pickup isn’t available in your area, you can ship your items with a free shipping label. The final way is to visit a brick-and-mortar Luxury Consignment Office.

After The RealReal receives your items, they will be photographed and priced by The RealReal. The process takes an average of 10-15 days. Unless you have a lot of high dollar items, you’ll be missing out on a lot of the profits of your sold items.

Pros

Cons

  • A+ BBB rating
  • Flexible ways to sell (pick up, mail, or in-person)
  • Professionally photographed items
  • Save up to 70% off the original retail price when buying clothes
  • Must enter your email to shop the site
  • Must request a return within 14-days
  • RealReal prices items
  • Customers complain that they’ve received fake or poor quality items
  • No response to negative reviews on BBB, only positive reviews
  • Charges sellers a $100 fee for fine art pieces and $15 for other items

Commission Rates

  • 70% for net sales of $10,000 or more
  • 60% for net sales of $1,501-$9,999
  • 55% for net sales of $201-$1,500
  • 50% for net sales of $200 or less

$100 fee for fine art pieces and $15 fee for other items sold.

Tradesy Review

Tradesy logo

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Launched in 2012, Tradesy’s goal is to have every product have five owners in its lifetime. Tradesy wants designer products to be affordable and accessible to everyone.

You can list your authentic, designer clothing, bags, shoes, and accessories on Tradesy within 60 seconds directly through its app. Tradesy selects the price for you and charges a flat price or fee depending on the sales price.

Tradesy even has a wedding category that sells wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, and other wedding gear. However, random items like stocking caps in this category don’t fit what we consider traditional wedding attire.

ProsCons
  • Wedding and bridesmaid dresses
  • Save up to 70% off the original retail price when buying clothes
  • The seller sets the price of items
  • Return within 4-days to get a refund
  • Sellers have fees taken out of their sales
  • Not BBB accredited
  • Sellers say it can take weeks to get profits

Commission Rates

  • $7.50 commission fee for items less than $50
  • 19.8% commission fee for items more than $50

Reduce, Reuse, Resell (And Make Some Money Too)

You can positively impact our planet and earn a decent chunk of money by utilizing an online designer consignment service. Why stop at selling your clothes, though?

Do you have electronics that you no longer use? You can sell your old smartphones and computers through one of these electronic recycling companies.

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